Roost
by DustTilDawn
Summary: Summer and Qrow fall into a ditch together and as they talk about the past, they also contemplate their future as their time at Beacon comes to an end. Will they stay friends or will it progress further? Should it?
1. Into the Deep

**A/N: Another Rwby Fanfic to fill the void between volumes. Be wary, as there is a far amount of time skipping throughout this story.**

* * *

"Summer!" Raven's voice rang out just in time for me to notice that our fearless leader had thrown herself into an ever-widening ditch beneath us. "Qrow!"

Raven didn't need to tell me twice. I dove after her. She was easy to spot: A white cape against a brown and gray backdrop. It was much harder to avoid the falling rocks that could've easily killed us both. What could be so important to her?

Then, I saw it. One of her crescent moon knives, was spinning just out of her grasp in front of her. A boulder was also about to fall on her but that didn't seem to matter at the moment. I pulled out my long sword, slicing it in half, one of them still fell on her, but at least it was less damage. She flung herself away from the bottom. My scroll beeped to signal her aura levels dropping. Stupid girl.

"Got it!" She turned around to smile at me. She held Bloom in her hands, the rest of her knives were sheathed around her small frame. I don't know how many she carried, but I've only ever seen 6 at once. She crashed into the wall, slowing her momentum and allowing me to grab her over my shoulder. "And I've got you." We were quickly approaching the floor, a cavern deep within the depths of Mt. Glenn.

The city had originally been planned as an expansion of Vale, but the project had ended in disaster when hordes of Grim escaped Merlot Industries' experimental facilities at the heart of the city. Every senior at Beacon Academy was dispatched on a mission to defeat any Grim they found and scavenge for survivors. We were in the middle of a systemic search when a small group of Beowulf attacked, causing the ground to break away.

"And now, here we are." I swung my scythe into the ground before landing on top. Birds had very good balance.

Summer giggled. "My hero." I unceremoniously dropped her from my shoulder, she was barely taller than my scythe. It would've been funny if I hadn't been so angry at her.

"What the hell were you thinking?! Now we're stuck down here until we can find our way back up to the city."

She shrugged at my anger. "I wasn't. I had to grab my weapon back. If you dropped Huginn, you probably would've done the same thing."

She was right, but I didn't want to say anything that would make her any more proud of herself. "So what do we do now? All of our supplies are with Tai, and we have no way of getting back up to the city. This place could be overrun with Grim."

Her eyes sparkled with mischief. "We'll be fine. See the train tracks? They lead to various parts of the city and eventually back to Vale. We'll just follow them out while we search for survivors. Now come on. I don't want to be stuck here with you for too long."

She skipped off. I grabbed my scythe and trailed after her. She thought she was so clever. But I couldn't deny that she was. I could only hope she'd always be this clever. She took too many risks not to be. A danger to herself and everyone around her.

We walked in silence through several long tunnels. Each one looked more or less the same. We could be lost down here for days before anyone found us, or us them. I was thumbing through the chances of finding an exit before her scroll beeped. She jumped in surprise before pulling it out. "A timer. I've set one for every hour so we know how long we've walked. There's a tracker too so we know how far we've walked and in what direction." She was showing me a poor map on her scroll. There was no indication of anything around us, just a squiggly line showing the route we had used and a tally for the supposed hour we'd been inside the tunnels.

"Not bad." She generally was clever with her little plans but I rarely complimented her. She got too cocky too easily.

"I know." She grinned, "but I wish you'd say something. I don't want to just walk through the tunnels in silence. Do you want to play a game or something?"

I smirked slightly in spite of myself. She was so childish. "What game can we possibly play in this dark and boring tunnel?"

"Hmm…" She already had something in mind, I could tell by the way she was smiling. Her lost in thought face was just another one of her silly games. "We'll ask each other questions, and when you can't answer, the other person gets a point. Whoever has less points when we make it out, has to buy ramen."

"That sounds stupid, but okay. Just for you I guess." I shrugged. Sounded simple enough, and even if I lost, it would just be a bowl of ramen.

"I'll go first. Ahem. What's the name of your first girlfriend?"

I took a step back in surprise. "What…You can do that? I thought it'd be trivia."

"We never set any rules, I can ask anything I want. If you don't want to answer, I'll consider that a point in my favor." She was grinning at me mischievously, like a tiny devil in a white hood. I weighed the alternatives in my head. To give in this early would give her a lot of leeway into getting points. I'd be losing by miles before the next hour waseven up.

"Wren Branwen." She laughed, and her giggles echoed throughout the cavern.

"She was a Branwen?! Were you guys related or something?"

"That's two questions and that's cheating. You get nothing. It's my turn to ask something." I thought for a moment, before coming up with nothing. It's not that she wasn't interesting, but it was hard to want to know more about someone I had already lived with for three years. "What about you? What was the name of your first boyfriend?"

"Pass."

"That's it? You're giving me a point just like that?" I could never tell what she wanted. Magical girl this one.

"Yup. Take the point, my free gift to you on this wondrous day. My turn. What's the name of your most recent girlfriend?"

I had to think about that one. "Define girlfriend."

"A girl you've either kissed, had unsaintly relations with, or asked on more than 3 dates." Yikes.

"Thistle Lambdini"

"The girl next door?! Oh my god! It's going to be so awkward now! I won't be able to look at her the same way when we shower. What did you do Qrow?"

"Stop with the double questions you cheater. Why does it matter what I did? It's not like you stare at each other while showering."

"Because it's weird! What if you knew Raven and Tai were doing stuff when we weren't looking. Would you be able to look at him the same way or would you picture him naked doing creepy stuff to your sister?"

I had to pause for a moment and shake the mental image away. That would need some mind bleach. "Okay. Fine. I guess. It is kinda weird. I'll try not to mess around with the girls on our floor anymore."

She laughed. "You don't mean that. It's okay, Qrow. I understand, but it's my turn again!"

"Wait! It's my turn. You already asked your question."

"No I didn't. I asked you about your last girlfriend. You asked me why it'd be weird looking at Thistle. I answered you so it'd be my turn."

I had to stop walking for a minute to calculate that. It felt like she was cheating, but two could play at that game. "True, but then you asked me if I could look at Tai the same way if I knew he was sleeping with my sister and I said I couldn't. There, my turn."

"...That's petty, Qrow." She was frowning, but her eyes were mischievous and playful.

"You started it." I laughed. "So, what's the name of your most recent boyfriend?"

"Pass."

"What the hell Summer? Do you just plan to pass all of them and give me a free bowl of ramen?!" Her scroll beeped. It had been another hour. Time was moving faster. I hadn't even noticed how far we'd walked or how many stones she had uncovered. She was still doing her job: Checking corners and under larger stones for survivors. There had been none. The attack on Mt. Glenn had been disastrous.

"No. But the questions you're asking are hard."

"They're YOUR questions. I'm just throwing them back at you."

"I know. But I have standards. I don't just air my dirty laundry to anyone who asks."

"I'm not just anyone." This was getting offensive. We were friends, teammates, sometimes more than that and she was just leaving me hanging.

"Nope. But you're not someone I'd tell these things to."

"Then who would you tell them to?"

"I don't know. A boyfriend if he asked. I think he'd deserve to know these things."

"Okay. Fine. If you're going to play it like that, then I guess there's nothing else to say." My anger had already melted away. If she was going to pull out the boyfriend card then there was no way to argue.

"Well, if you're done with the hissy fit, I guess it's my turn." I'd completely forgotten about the game, but she clearly hadn't, however, I wasn't going to let her get away just yet.

"No it isn't. It's mine."

"Nope. You already took your turn. You asked who I would tell those things to, and I answered you: my boyfriend."

"Fine. Whatever. Go."

"Why did you choose us as partners?"

This was a different one. I guess she was out of questions about my love life. "What do you mean?"

"At Initiation. Tai saw me falling out of the sky and disappearing so we were paired up even before I made it to the temple. I was waiting there to see who else had paired up, trying to pick the best team, doing retcon. I saw you and Raven sitting there the entire time. You were scouting the teams too. Why did the two of you pick Tai?"

That was a tough question. I remember that day too. We had just come to the school. She'd watched the other students the night before. We'd slept three hours each and watched them for the rest. None of them had met her standards so she'd decided to wait at the temple instead. The pairs came one after another but it wasn't until Tai walked up alone that my sister decided to match his choice: The Black Knight.

"I think it was because he was alone. Raven thought he was interesting to make it through the forest without seeing anyone else. We didn't know you were there."

"So it was because she thought he was strong enough to make it through the forest alone."

"Alone and unarmed. Yeah. Probably."

"You didn't help pick?"

"No."

"That's unexpected."

"I didn't really care either way. I didn't come here to make friends."

"But you made two anyway." She was smiling. The tension between us had completely disappeared.

It was my turn now, and I'd come up with the perfect question. "When did you know you liked me?"

She laughed, that same ringing giggle that echoed through the caves. "You're really cocky you know that?"

I started laughing too. "Yeah, I know."

"Do you remember that night I cornered you outside the dorm right after Initiation?"

"Yes."

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 **Please rate and review. I read all of them for ideas and criticism. Thanks for reading.**


	2. First Night, First Kiss

**A/N: To my dear guest review, Qrow/Summer stories don't exist because people don't like the couple. However, I believe in their legitimacy so I must finish this story.**

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"Why?" Summer rose had pinned me against the wall. An impossible fleet really considering she was a foot shorter than me, and half my weight. It was cute that she thought I couldn't escape if I really wanted to.

"Why what?"

"Why are you following me around? You don't even like me. Not you or Raven."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't try to play dumb. I heard the two of you whispering earlier after the initiation. Raven doesn't think I'm strong enough to lead, and you're probably the same."

"Look, you can't blame her. We grew up in Anima. It was a different place, different way of living. The strongest led, and small little girls like you didn't give orders. She's just not used to being ordered around."

She shook her head once and her hood fell down. Her hair looked like a dancing flame in the dim candlelight, a collusion of red that came together in a brilliant rainbow of fire. "Okay, fine. Let's pretend her ego won't let her treat me like the leader of this team. What about you? You don't listen to me either. You think I can't fight when I want to?"

"I don't think a cute girl like you _should_ be fighting monsters. No discrimination. When the team was made, I didn't think you'd lead. I'd thought—"

"Do you think I'm weak or do you simply not trust me?" She pulled out a crescent moon knife from a sheath latched to her thighs and pressed the blade to my neck. The cold metal warned me of danger, but I felt no malice, only the purest of anger. She was insulted. "Listen here Branwen and understand this. I am not a helpless child and so help me, I will slay every Grim within a thousand meters of this school to keep it safe and I can do it myself. Even without you or your sister."

She'd disappeared then, vanished into thin air. I felt the cold metal at my throat for another second before that vanished too. _She's feisty_. That was my first thought. The second was that I might've been wrong about her. I was. Her combat scores were top tier. Most of our classmates could never even touch her never mind actually beating her. She made excellent use of her semblance. She never talked much in class but she did her work. Her academic grades weren't as high as some of the other kids, but they never slipped. I was beginning to think their mediocre standing was intentional. All of her exams came back with an 80% every time, no exceptions.

Weeks, months went by without much change to the power hierarchy. At least, I hadn't noticed that it was changing. Raven and I kept to ourselves even though we had a bit of trouble. Tai made it very clear he was interested in my sister, but he had shown the same interest to nearly every girl at the school who was visibly female. His attempts were amusing mostly because they were crap. No girl in their right mind would respond well to his halfhearted compliments, and there was an endless stream of them. "Your eyes are as green as the grass outside." I mean, what the hell was that?

Summer would laugh at him a lot. That bothered me a bit, but he thought of me as some strange gatekeeper to my sister, (I wasn't.) and that bothered me more. He'd challenge me to everything and thought that she would like him if he won. (She wouldn't.) It was entertaining sometimes. She'd walked off in the middle of a particularly grueling wrestling match that he won (I let him.) without even saying anything to either of us. He ran off in a weak attempt to find her after I had forfeited to a headlock. Summer stayed, watching me with interest. I didn't get up. The grass was nice, and the wind was soft.

"You took quite a beating this time." Summer had laid down next to me, her hood protecting her hair from the grass or any bugs that might be hiding in the folds.

"Yup." The two of us were quiet for a moment, comfortable in the silence. I was the one who felt the need to break it first. "So, why are you here shooting the breeze with me, Summer. I thought you hated me."

She shook her head, the grass rustling beneath her hood. "I never hated you. I just didn't trust you. Still don't by the way, but I wanted to know why you keep letting Tai beat you."

"It makes the big guy happy. He thinks beating me will make Raven like him. She won't look twice at him anyway so it doesn't matter." I would be wrong about this, but that was far in the future. Her excuse was that for several years she was delirious for wanting something as stupid as a peaceful family in the country.

"What makes you say that?"

"Eh. She doesn't really connect with people."

"Then what does she connect with? Trees? Birds?"

"It's a curse I'm afraid." I was grinning. Mainly because she did connect much better with birds than with people. We both did. It was in the name of Branwen that we would.

"I've noticed."

"You have?" I cocked myself on an elbow to grin at her. That last statement surprised me. "How long have you been watching me, little lady? Following me around? Why?"

She turned to look at me, her hood hiding most of her face from view. "Yes. Months. On the roof, I've seen you talking to ravens and crows when you think we're all asleep. They only show up there when one of you are around."

"So you have been following me. Do you have a crush on me?" I rolled over so I was on my hands and knees above her. Her small frame was trapped beneath my limbs. "I'm afraid I'm too charming and devious for the likes of you to handle." It was fun, flirting with this girl who wasn't afraid to say embarrassing or awkward things. It was also nice to find out she had been watching me as much as I had noticed her. I doubted she really liked me, but flirting for the sake of it could also be fun.

She didn't blush or try to hide. She pushed herself forward and blew into my face. I lifted on arm, giving her enough room to escape. By the time I realized my mistake, she had already disappeared, but there wasn't any signs of her walking away. I could hear her laughing somewhere close by in the open space. I wanted to reach out and grab her, if only I knew where she was.

"Come on Summer. It was just a joke. No need to be shy. Come out and talk to me."

I could feel her arms wrap around my throat in a headlock. Her teeth were nibbling on the top of my ears. "I think you're the one who can't handle my charming ways." I turned around to throw her, but she was already gone: invisible, untraceable. I would catch her. I promised myself this. That vow would be the beginning of a very, very long game of cat and mouse. I still don't know who was chasing who.

* * *

There would be nights I'd wake up and see her bed was missing its owner. Sometimes I'd feel her eyes on me during class, but turn to see no one there. As the months and weeks wore on I realized she was present in all of my waking thoughts.

 _Why don't I see her in class?_

 _What did she put in those cookies on her desk?_

 _Is that her over there with Joel?_

 _What would it feel like to run my hands up her skirt?_

That last one made for a pretty uncomfortable battle period during one of Porter's long-winded lectures. I'd try and hunt her down during class or lunch but she'd only appear for a minute before disappearing again. It was on purpose. She would do it to let me know she was there and then gone again as if to say I would never catch her.

The longer it took, the more fun I was having, and the more I thought about her. She felt the same way. I knew it. Whenever I saw her, she would be watching me with a coy smile. Dr. Calhoun finally gave me the chance nearly two months later. Summer had just beaten some helpless kid into the ground and she was waiting for another challenger. I jumped into the arena to join her. The professor eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you sure about this Mr. Branwen? Summer is the head of your team. I wouldn't want to cause unnecessary discourse in your living conditions."

"Yes, ma'am." I answered. My scythe was ready. I'd beat her to a pulp; She was mine.

The starting bell rang. She was swung first, testing the waters before disappearing. My eyes couldn't see her, but I could sense her, hear her footsteps. They were lithe, light little things that seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at once. All of a sudden, I could see a whirlwind of white and red fall from above me. She was too fast to dodge, I blocked. One of knives hit the back of my scythe, which had already begun shifting. The muzzle pressed against her face. She ran back, disappearing again, but it was too late. The bullets had connected. They bounced off her aura, causing sparks where they met.

Her aura levels were dropping rapidly on the large screen above our heads. Knowing her condition helped, even if I couldn't see her. She was breathing harder. She had a heartbeat. I just needed to find it. Even if I couldn't, my bullets were doing a good job of finding my invisible target.

Then, I felt a knife graze the back of my neck. She'd come close again. My scythe was back, and this time, it'd connected, she materialized as it swung her body into the ground. My scythe had pinned her cloak to the floor. I would win. This thought was what killed me. Overconfidence is my bane, and vanity my sin. "You're mine." I whispered.

"Not yet." She threw both her knives at me. I dodged, giving her enough time to pull another pair hidden behind her When the first pair of knives connected with my face, I understood what she meant. Her knives could steal my aura, my life source. I hadn't noticed that every time she got a hit in, her aura levels went up just the barest amount. It wasn't enough to put her in the lead, but would they'd already done their damage.

Her new knives looked just like her old ones. They were meant to look like copies, but they weren't. In fact, I would learn much later that each of her knives were capable of something different. She'd hidden this power from us in the beginning because she saw us as the enemy. In this fight, I still was. She was faster than me. When her stealth wasn't working anymore, she'd started using her speed. I could barely touch her. I threw my scythe at her torso, she dodge-rolled to the left, right into my arms. "Caught you." I threw her into ground, breaking some of the tiles beneath.

She gasped in a breath, scrambling to get back up. I expected her aura shield to flash and die but it didn't. She threw her remaining two knives at me. I dodged both, but the effort had given her time to grab me by the shirt and pull me into a kiss.

That's when I felt it, two swords sliding across my back, draining the rest of my aura. I could feel my energy, my victory slip through the wounds; I fell to the ground. She caught me with little effort breaking the quick kiss. Dr. Calhoun sounded the buzzer. "Well done both of you. Very good match, but Ms. Rose is the victor. I suggest you go back and reflect on your mistakes Mr. Branwen."

The class was dismissed and everyone filed out but Summer didn't move. She was still holding me up, leaving her knives scattered across the stage. "Are you okay?"

"You tried to distract me with that kiss."

"Yes, and it worked."

"Why would you go so far for just a fight?"

Her grip tightened around me. "Because our mission is to fight Grim, fight for our lives and keep the ones we love alive. If we don't do everything we can to win, we die. You know this Qrow. You and Raven have seen the horrors of a battlefield. I can tell from the way you fight and train. Remember that for us, winning is everything."

I stood up to look at her but she'd disappeared the moment I'd let go. She was still in the room, still looking at me, still whispering to me quietly. "I've won this round little mouse. Let's play again later."


	3. Flirting with Death

**A/N: Qrow does like to tease people. He was kinda flirting with Winter before that fight ended.**

* * *

"I started to like you after that first night. After I threatened you and walked away, you didn't follow me. You went up to the roof to talk to your birds and I followed you. It was interesting watching you talk to them and answer their questions like they had asked you something. You knew what they preferred to eat too. I saw you getting them specific food from the lunchroom." She was looking into the distance when she answered me, remembering some distant memory I barely had any recollection of. "I still see you doing that sometimes."

"Not as much anymore." She was right. We were seniors now, and I still fed whatever birds I ran into, but I rarely went out of my way to get them their preferences. It was just easier and faster to grab whatever I could from the kitchen.

"You finally answered one of my questions." I smiled. This game could be fun if she cooperated.

"I've answered a couple. The ones that you asked without copying me."

"Well, it's your turn." I answered. Another hour ticked by on her scroll.

"At the dance, before the Vytal tournament last year. You went there with some girl from Shade Academy. When you guys went to the balcony, she came back all red and angry and her clothes were torn. What happened?"

I had to shake my head a bit to recall that memory. "How the hell did you even remember that? I completely forgot that even happened."

"Her teammates were standing by me at the punch bowl. They thought you'd attacked her or something. The three of them were determined to kill you when they saw you walking off with another girl right after the first one ran down the stairs into their waiting and indignant arms."

I smirked. Summer had a way with painting a very vivid picture with her words. I could vaguely remember the Vytal picture but now, I could conjure a pretty good idea of what had happened. Those poor lonely losers. "I didn't know that. Did you stop them?"

"No. I figured if you lost to those weaklings then I'd send Tai and Raven into the doubles round at the tournament, but enough about that. Answer the question."

"Well…"

* * *

The night in question wasn't a very memorable one. The Vytal festival only happened once every two years and that one in particular was held in Solicitis in the kingdom of Atlas. Tai had asked Raven to the dance and was promptly shot down so he had scouted out a pair of Vaccuo girls instead. One for himself, and for whatever reason, one for me.

I don't remember her name anymore but she was pretty I guess. Tai had taken her friend off to some corner so I was left alone to fend off whatever this woman wanted to throw at me. The night started off slow. We talked about some basic stuff: our teams, where we were from, boring stuff like that. As the night wore on and more people showed up, we danced a bit, the awkward kind where we didn't know what we were doing. I remember seeing Summer there talking to Joel and maybe another boy from our year.

My date wasn't very happy with my nonexistent dancing skills so we went outside to get some fresh air instead. It was a bit windy because fighter planes kept flying by but for the most part, it was nice and romantic. The sky was a strange purple. There were stars showing, couples were clearly moving into second and third base on the floor beneath us.

"So, Qrow how are you liking Solitas?" She had an unexpectedly large cleavage. It might've just been the dress. I don't remember anymore.

"It's okay. The view would be better without the military crew hovering around every corner."

She laughed. Maybe she thought my quip was funny. It was, but I'd meant it as more of an insult to the place than as a flirty joke. "Oh really? I do think you have a really nice view from there."

She'd been watching my eyes. Her hand curled around my throat, scratching the skin. She pulled me to her, lifting my face up so I had to directly stare at her face, and not her chest. She didn't seem the least bit angry that I'd been watching.

The kiss was shocking but not much else. She bit my lip a lot and there was a lot of saliva involved. I pinched her butt and ripped her dress when I tried to pull her off. She moaned in my mouth but didn't let go. It wasn't what I originally wanted, but she didn't seemed to want to stop. I ultimately had to force her off me because she had lifted up her skirt and she wasn't wearing underwear.

"You're really not my type."

Her smile dropped. "What?"

"You're not my cup of tea. I'm not into you. You're not attractive."

"I heard you the first time you asshole!" She moved in to slap me but I caught her hand.

"And you really should wear more underwear."

* * *

"And then she walked off all angry-like and I let her."

Summer just stared at me in shock. "You can't be serious." I shrugged. She was shaking her head in shame but then she started cackling like a witch without any end in sight. "I can't believe you did that. She was probably devastated."

I shrugged again. It was hard to pull some sort of feeling for that memory. It didn't really leave an impression. Most women didn't. "She really wasn't all that special."

"What about the other one? The one who dragged you off after that first one left."

I grinned. The second one I did remember clearly if for no other reason than because after she had dragged me off, she'd almost thrown up at me. We hadn't done anything. She'd mistaken me for her boyfriend who had run off earlier with a third or fourth girl. She screamed at me for several minutes and she had been so drunk that she'd projectile vomited on anything within 2 meters. My good reflexes saved my clothes before her friends dragged her away. By the time that whole mess was over, Summer was already long gone. "That was a little more interesting. We did dirty things in her room while the rest of her all-female team watched, naked."

"You're an awful human being."

I laughed, clutching my stomach at her seriousness. "You say that like it's the first time you've met me. What did you do that night?"

"Nothing. Is that your question?" She looked at me, disappointed.

"Yeah, I guess. Is that your way of saying you pass?"

"No." She pouted. "I really didn't do much that night. A couple guys asked me to dance. I said no. Raven came a little later, but by then Tai was already gone, so me and her talked about battle strategies in dresses and had a mock battle on the court."

"Wow. The two of you are really boring." I snickered.

"Shut up."She was almost pouting.

"Aw, c'mon. I was just kidding. Don't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous.

She didn't sound jealous, that much was true, but she did sound unhappy. "What's wrong then, c'mon talk to me. I'm having fun now."

"Why do you do stuff like that?"

"Like what?"

"Mess around with girls you don't even know."

"I don't know. It's a natural instinct kind of thing. It's just for fun Summer. They don't mean anything, and we don't do anything serious. She thought I was someone else and dragged me off to chew my ear off."

"Of course..."She walked a little faster, her tiny legs reminding me of a hamster.

"What? What is it? Don't believe me?"

"I've seen how you treat them. Trust me, I believe you." I could imagine her rolling her eyes, but in my peripheral she was still frowning.

"Then why are you doing that? Why are you making that face?" I was starting to get frustrated. Girls were a mess. Sometimes I wished they were more like Raven, but she wasn't nearly as fun to mess with as the others.

"Am I one of those girls, Qrow?"

"What? No. Don't be stupid. You're Summer. We're a team. We're friends." Her expression didn't change. She looked even more angry now than before. She'd pulled up her hood to hide her face. Another alarm sounded on her phone.

"We've been down here for hours. We should set up camp and rest for a few hours. We can keep walking in the morning. We should be close to an exit by now, but leaving at night would be dangerous."

She walked away to set up a small fire in the middle of the tunnel. It probably extended for several miles in front of us and it definitely did behind us, but we could probably defend from any attacks should that happen . According to the map the scroll had drawn, we were moving almost perfectly in one direction back to Vale. However, we were still inside the city of Mt. Glenn. If we exited in the morning, we should find Raven and Tai without much problem.

It didn't take us long to set up camp. There wasn't any firewood but kindling wasn't hard to find. Old clothes, scraps of paper, debris, anything would do. I took a a shot at the pile we'd made, setting it alight. Summer sat on one side, her back to flames. The light bounced off her hair, giving it more highlights than ever before. I leaned on the wall, watching her. We hadn't said a word to each other since she'd recommended we set up camp. She wouldn't look at me either.

These moods of hers happened more often than I liked. We normally didn't talk about her feelings for me. Over the years we avoided being alone together, but whenever we were, it was generally simpler for one of us to walk away first. As a group, we were good friends. We played video games, we talked, we trained, made jokes. As far as I knew, she'd never told anyone about the things we did: Not Raven or Tai or any of her other friends.

"Should we finish our game?" I'd only said it because I couldn't sleep and I couldn't stand her silence. I didn't think she'd answer me.

"Sure. Your turn. Ask your question."

"Why do you like me?"

"Because your scythe looks cool."

That made me laugh. "Really that's it? You don't think Raven's sword is cooler? Why aren't you in love with her?"

"I never said I was in love with you."

"Sometimes, you don't need to say it. I know that you do, and I can feel it. That's all that matters."

"Yeah. I guess that's true. Your feelings radar must be off."

"You can say that, but I know what I know. So answer the question Summer, and give me the real answer this time."

"Because you're fun. You're not afraid of me. You don't try to talk to me like I'm a bomb waiting to explode. You understand me when I make stupid jokes. You let Tai win when you think it will make everyone feel better. You play video games with me when I'm sick of doing homework. I like being around you. You're honest even if that means pissing people off. You have soft hands. Are you happy now? Do you like your real answer?"

She didn't turn around to look at me so I couldn't see her face. It was strange watching her like this. We didn't talk about stuff like this. It made her seem like a different person, a foreign girl telling me about someone I didn't know. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but joking and laughing always made things easier.

"One of those was not like the others, but yeah. I'm happy. It's your turn."

"How do you feel about me, Qrow?"

"I don't know."

She didn't answer me. It's more likely she was waiting for me to add something to my answer, but I couldn't think of anything. Threes years, we'd spent together. We fought together, slept in the same room together, ate together, starved together, on those weird mission nights, we'd even bathed together. How was I supposed to feel about someone like that?

I didn't want to say anything else. The tension was so thick, her knives could probably cut it. It felt like the two of us were waiting for a bomb to go off. I wasn't sure if she was waiting for me or not, but she saved me the effort of thinking a moment later. "Do I get to ask another question since you can't answer that one?"

"Sure."

"Why did you kiss me that night on the train?"


	4. Mission Impossible

**A/N: Thank you to Romantic Silence for her helpful review. I went back to the earlier chapters and did some minor edits. The conversation generally goes back and forth. If you think one line is from Qrow, then the next after a paragraph break is usually whoever he's talking to. In other news, this is the longest chapter in this story. So sorry for the huge delay.**

* * *

The four of us sat on the floor of the dorm, a card game spread out intricately. Tai eyed us all with suspicion. "Who's the spy…"

We all looked innocently back at him. None of us said a word. He would need to make his move sooner or later. Raven glanced at the clock in the middle of the board. He had 30 more seconds before it was her turn.

After Summer had beaten me in a fight, the biggest change had come from Raven. My sister's opinion of our tiny leader did a complete 180. They would disappear together to talk battle tactics, leaving Tai completely baffled at how Summer had done such a magical feat. I was in the same boat. While I had a vague idea why Raven might've changed her mind, it never occurred to me to ask.

The situation was nice, even if it wasn't what we had originally expected. Summer was a far better student than the rest of us. Raven picked fights often but we had yet to see her go to any of her many of her supposed disciplinary punishments. Tai liked to cook so whenever Raven wanted midnight snacks, she'd often kick him out of bed to make something. We'd developed something that looked like friendship. The board games were just a small part of it.

The buzzer rang without Tai making a move. Raven took her turn, pulling out a card from the stack closest to her. Summer did the same without any hesitation. I looked at the choices in front of me. 5 cards face down in front of each of us. 5 in my hand. I was certain almost certain Tai was an ally but any minute now, the spy might have enough pieces to blow us all up without any of us reaching victory. I traded one card with Summer and another with Raven, ending my turn.

We continued like this in silence. The tension was growing with every turn. None of us dared to make a sound, one wrong move and the entire thing would blow up in our face. Tai was visibly sweating, finally, he broke down. "I accuse you of being the spy!" He was pointing at me, and I had to resist the urge to punch him.

"Reconsider it. Take it back."

"No. I'm sure it's you."

I threw my cards at him. "Go to hell, Tai."

Summer started screaming. "Yes, yes, yes! I win!" She fist-pounded the air, before shaking her hips slightly.

Raven also threw her cards into the pile, letting out a sigh. "You're awful at this game, Tai."

"It's not my fault. If I wasn't going to accuse someone, she was bound to get all the parts she needed sooner or later. We would've lost anyway." He turned to our tiny winner. "How is it always you?! It's statistically impossible."

Summer shrugged, shuffling the cards back into their respective piles.

"Grim disaster indeed." Raven grinned before walking out of the room. "I'm going to get something to eat. Come on Summer." The redhead nodded and followed her out, whistling at her victory.

Tai watched them with envy, his shoulders sagging in defeat. "It's not fair. Why can't Raven be like that with me?"

I picked up the cards off the floor, putting them back in their appointed slots in the box. "Probably because Summer doesn't try as hard."

"What do you mean? Shouldn't you try to like the person you're sharing a room and life with?"

"You make it sound like you're already married. Summer does whatever she wants Tai. She never tried to make us like her or want to be around her. People just happened to end up liking that personality trait of hers. It's an admirable quality."

"Are you one of those people?" He was lounging on his bed, grinning at me. I had another urge to punch him in the face. My need to suppress this urge so frequently was probably giving me some form of mental disease. I put Grim Disaster on top of Dust Wars before closing the cabinet. Tai had gone out on a date one day and brought back Summer with a multitude of board games. Our room was small enough as it was, but the board games didn't help.

"Sure." I answered shrugging. I plopped on his bed next to him. "Aren't you? You haven't hit on her yet. It's almost like telling the world you're into her."

"Because I don't hit on her?"

"Because you hit on everyone else."

Tai sighed. "It's not serious. I hit on them because I get nervous. Talking to girls is hard. I had 6 older brothers. My mom died when I was a kid so no one ever taught me how to talk to them. Summer is the only girl I've been able to look at and not stutter. Even with Raven, I look at her and it makes me speechless so I say the first thing that comes to mind. Usually some cheesy joke."

This was the first time he had opened up to me and it was a little awkward, but I knew this moment would change a lot between us. I had to tread carefully. "So, what? Do you like her or do you just not see her like a girl?"

"I think I see her like a little sister. Family." Tai was looking out the window. I could see the girls talking outside. Raven's eyes were closed, eating a sandwich. Summer was pointing at someone and laughing so hard her entire body shook. I wondered what they were talking about.

"What about Raven?" I put a bit of an edge into my voice. I wasn't at all protective of my sister, but there was no harm in pretending.

"She's amazing. I've never met a girl like her. She's so strong and independent, like she could be the last woman on earth and still not need anyone else. I would give anything if she looked twice at me."

I sighed. This was going to get ugly. It was only the second semester and he had already fallen head over heels. We hadn't even been on our first mission yet. That wasn't for another few weeks.

"Look, I can't help you. Not really, but we have a mission next week. I can try and wingman, I guess. Try and give the two of you more alone time. Just promise no more bad jokes. Try to relax or something. Pretend you're talking to me. We are twins."

He laughed. "Yeah, right. Your ugly mug looks nothing like hers."

I punched him in the stomach. "I hope you die alone."

Two weeks later we stood in the auditorium and looked around at the possible missions we could go on. As a first year we weren't allowed to do anything too dangerous, but there were a lot of choices. Raven chose travel security. Vale was protected by natural borders: mountains to the southeast and the sea to the northwest. There was a slight break in its protection in the south that allowed cargo trains to leave the city carrying supplies to nearby towns. One or two Huntsman generally accompanied them to and fro to neighboring cities.

"They need two teams to distribute supplies to four cities around Vale."

"Kanyon, Combe, Dale, and the Little Dells." Tai read off the list of cities. They meant nothing to me, but Summer smiled. "I've been to the Little Dells once. It's a small settlement by the north border."

"Is it worth the trip?" Raven only spoke to Summer, even though it was clear to all of us that Tai had the most knowledge.

Tai nodded almost imperceptibly, his hands balled into fists. Summer took the hint. "Yes."

"It's decided then."

* * *

The next day we were packed and ready to go. The other team was a foursome of girls I didn't know. Two of them blushed when they saw Tai but they didn't say anything to each other. An embarrassing memory then.

The ride would be simple. There were four cars, one for each city we would pass. We were to empty each one at the appropriate city together but we had to guard them in pairs. Two people per car. As promised, I took Summer and we guarded the last car, the cargo meant for Combe. Raven and Tai left us to sit with the cargo in the front.

"Thanks for doing this for him." Summer was sitting on the edge of the opening, her legs dangling outside the train. We had just left the city limits. There was nothing but trees and just the barest traces of Grim. Summer cocked her knives, shooting tiny Nevermore out of the sky. Like most weapons, hers was also a gun. However, her knives held less shells than all of ours. Whenever she ran out of bullets, she could throw them with accurate precision so they returned to her like a boomerang.

I sat on the other side, setting up my rifle. There were several crates between us acting as backrests. "What do you mean?"

"I know you're only here with me right now so he can get some alone time with your sister. I told him to just be himself. When he's not freaking out, he can be kind of cool. He's a good baker."

"I don't think my sister considers that cool."

"She might. Every girl loves a man who can cook."

"You too?"

She laughed. "If I said yes, would you learn how to cook?"

I laughed with her. "No. I just want to know what kind of guy would attract our fearless leader."

"Hmm…" she mused. I could imagine her smiling but I doubt she was actually thinking about her answer. "I don't know. I like what I like, There's nothing special about him."

"That sounds offensive."

"I think it's supposed to be." She laughed again.

The rest of our conversation was small talk. I don't remember what it was about anymore. All I remember was that I could see the color of the sky changing from blue to red and then black. When it became purple, the stars followed us as we moved.

"Summer?" No response. I walked around the tower of crates. She was lying on the floor, her white hood over her head. Her hands had a death grip on her knives. It occurred to me then that I'd never seen her sleep.

There were four beds in our room but she used hers mostly as a chair. Whenever I'd wake up in the middle of night looking for her, she'd never be there. She must've had somewhere else to sleep for this to be possible. It would be a question that bugged me progressively more frequently as our days went by.

I laid down next to her, careful not to touch her cape. Her face was drawn in sleep, as if she was having a nightmare. "Summer," I whispered again. The wrinkle in her forehead relaxed, but her grip on her knives never loosened. One of them was placed beneath her head. That couldn't have been comfortable.

I closed my eyes, and sleep came easily. When I woke up the next morning, we were pulling into the Little Dells and she was already outside. Tai and Raven stood on both sides of her in a labor line. The girls from the other team were also getting ready. Some of them purposefully not looking at Tai, though the tension was obvious.

The work was easy. Between the eight of us we unloaded the train cart quickly. The conductor gave us three hours to relax, rest up, and get some food. Raven and Tai walked off together almost immediately, the latter giving me a thumbs up behind his back.

I headed off with Summer into town. We'd lacked the foresight to bring food because we thought we'd be making more stops. Now was the perfect chance to fill our empty stomachs.

There were restaurants but the food stalls had food ready for us the moment we walked up: dry noodle bowls, strips of chicken, pots of mash, rice and beans, We ate to our fill and filled up even more for our long trip. Summer was now sporting a new, white backpack full of food.

"Okay, so you were right about the food stalls." I conceded.

"Aren't I always?" She grinned. The food stalls had been her idea. I'd wanted to sit down at a restaurant but she'd maintained that eating that way would use up all of our free time. "Besides, street food is delicious."

I poked her in the head. Smug bastard. "So where to now, Missy? You seem like you know the place pretty well."

"There's a waterfall behind that forest. If we head out now, we'll have plenty of time to take a quick bath and make it in time for the train."

I paused in my shock. "You want to take a bath together?!"

She kept walking, ignoring my shock and indignation. "Of course not. But we were working under the hot sun all morning. Frankly, you stink. I don't want to travel another twelve days with you smelling this way."

I moved to punch her in the arm, but she dodged, sidestepping me easily and disappearing behind a tree. "Don't get all pissy just because I'm right."

I ignored her, not even bothering with a response. We'd liked to make jokes, but we liked to fight more. After that first one at combat practice, we'd had plenty more. I won some, she won more. I could easily overpower her when it came down to it. Catching her was the hard part.

The forest had thick trees that seemed to reach the heavens. It's branches and leaves made a thick sheet that kept everything beneath it cool. It was at least ten degrees cooler than it had been in town.

"You can't catch me, Qrow. Try not to get lost." Her voice seemed to echo. She was obviously, using her semblance, hiding among the trees. Overhead, one of the branches shook, shaking down a mountain of leaves, then it happened again another meter away. She was moving.

I moved, using the branches as my trails. It was my first time in the Little Dells, but she'd been here before. If I lost her, there was no telling how long it would take to get back to the train. Also, it would be ugly to lose again even if she did have terrain advantage.

We'd reloaded up our weapons after we'd eaten, but the forest was empty of Grim. That was rare. It was likely that this whole area had been blocked off by some natural boundaries. Then, I saw it.

The waterfall was huge, towering even above the trees. The rocks below it were jagged and dangerous. The stream, not a stream so much a river. It wasn't a river so much a lake that flowed. I stopped myself, short of falling in, but there was a pressure on my back. I turned around in time to look at Summer's grinning face, her arms outstretched.

"You little -" I splashed into the water. There were fish all around me scattering at my sudden approach into their territory. I pushed myself above the water, cursing the tiny devil that had gotten me into this mess.

It was deep, impossible to stand. If she'd knocked me unconscious, I'd be dead. I swam back to the surface, finding land. Summer was still grinning when I plopped myself at her feet. "You should be more aware of your surroundings."

"You're evil," I answered, shaking my head. It didn't help. Water clung to every surface.

She took off her hood, throwing several crescent moon knives and her backpack on top. Her boots and socks were the last to go before she jumped in herself. She wore a skirt and some sort of vest thing. It wasn't nearly as hard to swim in as what I was wearing. This wasn't over.

I stripped off every last piece of clothing I owned and hund it on a tree. Huginn joined her knives. She would pay for this.

Summer was backpedaling so she was as close to the waterfall as the rocks allowed. I swam after her. She heard me coming, turning just in time to see me wrap my arms around her and pull her under the water. Her semblance was useless here.

Her eyes seemed to register that I was perfectly nude. They widened in shock. She looked like she wanted to laugh, but underwater laughing would be suicide. I let her go. She burst above the surface, laughing filling every corner of the lake.

"Hahahaha. Where are your clothes?" She was coughiing and choking, water coming out of her nose.

"Drying. You've reduced me to my birthday suit. Are you happy?"

"Sure." She was still laughing but now she was swimming from me toward shore. I effortlessly followed her. The skirt and vest was slowing her down.

She pulled herself out of the water, instantly disappearing. Water dripped from her invisible body. I grabbed for her general location, felt what might've been her chest, and threw her back into the lake. She instantly materialized. "Rude."

"Revenge for earlier. Can we call that a win?"

* * *

We went back to the train, the two of us soaking wet. Raven eyed us suspiciously, but said nothing. They disappeared back into their first cart but Tai gave me a grin and another thumbs up. I'd need to talk to them later.

Summer sat next to me and pulled several sandwiches and an orange from her bag. She peeled it effortlessly, throwing the shell out among the trees.

"You shouldn't litter."

"Orange peels are edible. The woodland creatures might eat them, and even if they don't, they are biodegradable and will be good fertilizer for the earth you uncultured swine."

"Know-it-all."

She smiled, tossing the rest of the orange peel into the forest. We sat together in comfortable silence. The trees rushed by in a blur. There were signs of Grim among the woods but Summer didn't try to shoot them down again. They held themselves at bay, watching us with bloodthirsty red eyes.

Without warning, her head fell on my arm, near my shoulder. Her was mouth slightly open. The tiniest amount of drool slid down the side of her face. "Summer…?" I whispered. No answer. I made no other moves to wake her.

The days that followed repeated in the same way. If we didn't make any stops, we'd eat what was left of Summer's food horde. If we pulled into the city we would unload the cargo and the conductor would give us a few hours to wander. Tai and Yang were closer than ever. I could even see her smiling sometimes.

Summer and I would eat (always food stalls), stock up, and wander around the settlements and nearby terrain before returning to the train. Sometimes, we would race (she won those) or we would fight in the middle of town surrounded by its residents (I won that).

In the evenings we'd sit together, our backs against the wall or a crate and we'd eat and talk. Sometimes we wouldn't talk at all but just watch the scenery flying by. It was different from any place I'd ever known. One night, after she'd fallen asleep I'd taken a picture of her on my arm. It was the same face that had a little bit of drool on her cheek. I didn't even care that she gotten my clothes dirty.

Combe had been our last stop. We were heading home now: A 5 day journey. Summer insisted that I go to the bathhouse before I came back to the train. The idea of spending that much time with her as my body odor increased was kind of embarrassing so I conceded.

The ride back had been busy. The Grim did attack now, if only in small hordes. The train didn't stop, but the horde would climb on top. We'd join them. Tai and Raven did the same. It was the only time the four of us been together the entire mission. The two of them worked well as a team.

The days and nights moved quickly. Between the Grim attacks and our sparring matches, Summer and I blazed through her food supply. The two of us would make no money on this mission simply because of food expenses. By our 4th day, we could see Mount Glenn, a landmark that meant we were approaching Vale and Beacon.

Summer slept on my arm, as she'd been doing nearly every day for the past two weeks. Her knives were safely tucked away. Even after 13 days on the road, her hair still smelled faintly of roses. I leaned over her and breathed it in, kissing her softly.

"I love you, Qrow." She whispered.


	5. Origin Stories

"You looked nice." That was the best I could do. I remember that night so well. I remember looking at her and thinking she was the cutest girl I had ever seen. I remember stopping the moment she said those three treasonous words that shook me to my core. I remembered pushing her away and walking over to the next car and just staying with the two girls whose names didn't matter. I remembered leaving her there, bewildered and hurt. I remembered ignoring her the day after, and then a week. Almost a month until we'd said more than a few words to each other.

"Look at me. Summer, please." She didn't turned around. I wish I could see her face. I wanted to be able to read her expression, but more than anything, I wanted to make sure she wasn't frowning or worse, crying. She had a knack for crying without making a sound. Her voice wouldn't waver either. "I'm sorry about that day. I don't know why I did it. I just...wanted to."

"You just wanted to huh…" She sighed. "Okay, fine. You just wanted to on the train. What about on the roof when second year started? After we had Tai's birthday party? After we celebrated your birthday? It sucks you know. You would ignore me every time right afterward."

She was angry. Her voice was strained, like she was forcing out every word. "Summer...I don't know. I feel something, but I don't know what it is, okay? I don't want to promise you something I can't give."

"Then stop. Stop doing this to me Qrow. Stop giving me this false hope because whether or not you promise doesn't matter. Every time you touch me. Every time you hug me and kiss me, I think you like me when I should know you don't.

I moved to wrap my arms around her. It was a reflex, but I caught myself before I did. Wasn't this what she was talking about? Every time I felt like doing something, I did it. Every time I wanted to hold her, I did. Every time I wanted to avoid her, I did. I never wondered how she felt about me because she'd made it obvious. I already knew she loved me.

"How can I stop? I care about you."

"If you care about me, then stop messing with me. If you want us to be friends, then act like my friend. Treat me the same way you treat Tai. You wouldn't kiss Tai would you? You wouldn't crawl into bed with him."

"...You were awake?"

"Yes..."

* * *

I punched Raven in the face. She took two steps back but there was no other sign that it had dealt any damage. Her kick hit me hard in the gut, and I was winded. _This might be the end_ , I thought. There was no way I could beat Raven in hand-to-hand combat. She had the weight on me. She wasn't exactly fat, but she was top heavy. Don't let her know I said that though.

Another kick, I could block but then she followed up with a punch to my chest. The shock comes first, the pain came next. I fell to the ground. She slammed one boot down on my stomach, and Summer blew the whistle. "Raven advances to the Singles round."

Tai clapped a little, but Raven pulled me back up. The Vytal tournament was about to end. We had done fairly well throughout. Raven and I had wasted the other teams in the doubles rounds and we had advanced to the finals. Now that we were here, we had to decide which of us we would send to singles. A fight seemed like the best judge of that.

Tai recommended we not use our weapons for fear of punishment. We could easily tear this school apart if we weren't careful. Summer agreed and here we were, punching each other into the ground. Raven was better.

"Okay, now that that's settled, let's go get some food. I'm starving." Tai patted his stomach.

"What do you even have to be hungry about? All you've done is watch us fight." Raven retorted. Ever since the mission, her indifference to him seemed to diminish a great deal. My plan had worked magnificently. Occasionally, they could be even be seen joking, like right now. I wondered what happened between them on the train. Maybe it had been the same thing as me and Summer, but they responded differently.

"Qrow." Summer tapped my foot, with hers. Tai and Raven were walking ahead, leaving the two of us a few meters behind. "What's wrong?"

I chuckled. "What makes you think something is wrong?"

She shrugged, walking quickly. She was the shortest by far and often had to nearly sprint to keep up with us. "Just a feeling."

"We'll talk about it later."

She nodded and we walked together in silence. Our silences ranged from awkward to comfortable. Sometimes, it was obvious to everyone that we didn't want to talk to each other, and at other times I felt like I could fall asleep in her arms.

We'd kissed several more times after the mission. It normally happened when the mood was festive. There almost always was a little drinking involved and we needed to be comfortably alone together. She avoided those moments. I could see that she'd been trying not to be alone with me whenever she could. Of course, that didn't cover nights when I was depressed, and that did happen sometimes.

Everyone was happy with our results in the tournament. We were one of two teams from Beacon to make it into the finals. There was one person from Anima, three from Vaccuo, and another two from Atlas. The results hadn't been surprising. Vaccuo's fighters were particularly strong. There had always be at least 2 every year.

Summer was on the roof already when I sneaked out of bed to join her. Tai had passed out on the floor long before. Raven had also disappeared to who knows where. She did it often. No one questioned where she went because we all knew she would never tell.

Summer was sitting against the ledge, hood up like a tiny doll that someone left behind. "Hey." I whispered.

She didn't look uup, "Took you long enough."

"I wanted to wait until Tai was sleeping before I came up here."

She nodded, her head bobbing along. "So what's wrong? You barely said anything at dinner, and you lost first during Counterforce. That never happens."

I smiled. The other two probably didn't notice these things. They were small, didn't matter. It was weird that she noticed at all. "I'm just...kinda disappointed in myself. Raven's always been the better fighter. I gave it my all during that match and it didn't seem like she was trying. It hurts, you know? All my life she's been stronger. I hate that. I hate that I can't beat her. I hate that even after all this time, I can barely touch her."

Summer threaded her fingers through mine and leaned her head on my shoulders. "That's not true. You're just not good at hiding your pain."

"What do you mean?"

"Your hits do affect her. You probably didn't notice but the nights she disappears are all on days where she trained with you. It's because she's meditating and she doesn't want anyone to know."

I held her at arm's length. Summer wouldn't lie to make me feel better, so how had she known this about Raven. "You've been following her."

"I'm nosy."

I laughed, throwing an arm around her. Yeah she was. Always sneaking around because we couldn't see her. "So she goes off to heal in hiding huh?"

"Yup, so you can't learn how strong you are. But you know, you have a lot of things Raven doesn't."

"Like what?" Her words brought a smile to my face before she even said them. This was nice. If this kind of attention was what I got for losing to Raven, I could be happy with that.

"You can grow decent facial hair. You're taller than her, and you're more compassionate. You understand people, and you're smarter."

I scratched at my chin where a bit of facial hair was growing in. I shaved often. "That last one is just your opinion." Raven didn't go to class often. Her grades were enough to make due but it was questionable how smart she was.

"Nope. Raven doesn't care about anything, and when you have no passion, you don't learn. She's a good fighter but even then, it's because she wants to be better than other people. She doesn't try to be stronger for herself."

"You think I do?"

"I think you try to be stronger so you can protect what's important to you."

I was silent for a minute. Maybe she was right, but there was a giant plot hole to her words. "What am I trying to protect? There's nothing important to me."

She punched me in the arm. Maybe my words had been a little mean. "You're protecting all of this." She gestured her left hand outwards, towards Beacon, Vale. Home. You have whip scars on your back, you know. I've seen them when you change in the room. Did the two of you run away from home?"

I hadn't noticed. It never occurred to me that she might've watched me change. The thought didn't bother me. It probably should have. "...Yes." She didn't ask further and that was good because if she did I might not have told her.

"Raven and I were born on Anima soil. We were raised by bandits. When we were younger, we did simple chores: count the loot, skin animals. When we could walk and talk they threw us into the field."

"Surveillance."

"Right. We could turn into birds. The best of spies. Who notices a pair of ravens in a forest? The only problem was when they did see us, we were prey. Food for the hunters in the settlements, and the animals in the wild. If we didn't come back with information, they'd whip us. Raven lied often. I didn't know how in the beginning. I learned fast."

"When we were 15, General Odena was killed in a raid. Our clan fell apart, and they turned on each other for power. We ran away right before the guns were drawn. I don't know how many of them are left and I don't want to. They're not my family."

"We are." I looked down at her, and she pulled back her hood to look at me.

Her eyes were solemn. "We're your family now, Qrow. Whatever you need, whatever happens, we'll always be there for you."

I looked down at our hands. Mine were squeezing so tight that they would've broken a weaker man's fingers. She didn't even flinch. I kissed her once, on the forehead. Short and sweet. This was not a moment I wanted to ruin with the awkwardness of a deep sloppy make-out session.

"Tell me about yourself, Summer. I don't know anything about you."

She was silent for a minute, calculating, but when she started speaking, I was surprised. "I was born on Solitas to a family of coal miners. My father named me Summer in the hopes that I would keep the house warm, even during the cold winters. In my settlement more people died from the cold than they did from starvation."

"My father died in a dust mine explosion when I was 10. It killed an entire crew of workers. Nicholas Schnee took me in and every other orphan that the explosion had created. He clothed us, fed us, and taught us how to fight. He was a good man. When Jacques Gele entered the picture, everything changed. It started slowly. Mr. Schnee spent less and less time in the mines and at the factories. We heard he was sick and confined to his room in the mansion. The orphans were turned into slave laborers right underneath his nose, even the youngest of us. If we didn't make quota, they beat us or sold us. Alice was only six. I was 14 at the time. I hated him so much. When Jacques came to check on one of our expeditions, I tried to kill him."

"You did what?!" My whole body had jumped at the idea.

"I would've succeeded too if it weren't for Ozpin. I don't know how he knew I was there but he grabbed me out of thin air. Gele wanted to execute me. He settled for banishment. Ozpin took me into his care, and trained me for years in secret before sending me to be a first year in this school." She finished.

Her face was cold and devoid of emotion. It reminded me of the faces she made when I first met her: Calculating, manipulative, dangerous. "Your life sounds like it was very hard." I whispered.

"Yours does too." She answered. She yawned, and that cold mask fell away. "But I'm happy here with the three of you. Ozpin still trains me in secret. I'm going to work for him when we graduate."

"That sounds like a nice secret to have."

"I have another secret that's just as good." She bounced up, dragging me after her. She took us downstairs and back into the winding hallways until we reached a door I had never noticed before. She pulled a key out of her pocket, unlocked the door and pulled me inside.

The room was a simple one with a bed and a desk. A tall shelf occupied an entire wall. It was filled to the brim with books, medicine, and a variety of medical supplies."What is this place?"

"The nurse's office. It's been left empty for years since aura can heal wounds. Ozpin gave me the room to meditate and live while I was in training but now that I'm here with the rest of our team, its become my hiding spot." She flopped onto the bed and kicked off the shoes all in one motion. "If you ever need somewhere to hide out, you can use this space."

She handed me the key, assuring me it was a copy she'd made for me. "Thanks…Summer, I don't know what to say."

"You don't need to say anything special. Tell me a bedtime story and that will be the best gift you can give me."

I sat down at her desk, watching her. She'd already crawled into layers and layers of blankets. She'd all but disappeared underneath when her clothes reappeared from the side of the bed and landed on the floor.

I tried to remember the story of the Shallow Sea, but had completely botched the fairy tale. I expected her to laugh, but she didn't say a word. I walked quietly over to where she was sleeping and poked her face. No response. Another kiss on the forehead and cheek also produced zero results.

She was a silly girl to fall asleep so easily. She was so defenseless it made the whole scene look ridiculous. I took off my own clothes, leaving my underwear on just in case and climbed into bed next to her. The bed wasn't very big but she was a small girl, and I easily wrapped myself around her. The scent of her was everywhere. I snuggled my face into her hair. "Goodnight, Summer."


	6. Away We Fly

She was glaring at me, her entire body radiating rage. "When I woke up the next morning, you were gone. It's almost like you didn't want me to know you were there."

That was exactly what happened. The night was sweet but when I woke up in the morning, I immediately regretted it so I dressed and left, never talking about it again.

She looked at me sadly, all the rage draining out of her at once. "Let's just go Qrow. Clearly neither of us are sleeping tonight."

I agreed, and we started our trek once again. It had been exhausting, talking about all this. I wasn't sure if it was a mistake or not. We were graduating in a few months and then things would never be the same. I might never get a chance like this again.

I said nothing.

An hour went by, and then another and still we said nothing. Finally, after a third hour beeped off her scroll, she moved her arm out to stop me. "This is the edge of Mt. Glenn, the exit should be around here."

The map she had used to track our movements showed that she was right. We were on the edge of the city. To travel any further would be cause us to leave the main gates.

We had probably already ignored several dozens of tunnels in favor of following the tracks. They had been ominous. While they could've brought us back to the surface, they might also lead deeper into the earth where hordes of Grim would surely be waiting.

"How can you be sure there's an exit nearby?" I asked, examining two of the three dark tunnels that could lead us to our deaths.

"We're right underneath the ruins of Merlot Industries. If anyone was going to use the train it would've been them. They would've needed weapons and Grim transported directly to them so that no one would know what they were hiding right underneath everyone's noses."

It made sense. No one knew they were experimenting on Grim until they had escaped and destroyed the city. The only way that would've been possible was if the trains transported the captured Grim directly into the facility. "What should I be looking for Summer?"

"Worn paths, maybe a cigarette butt, footprints, anything that points to people." I pulled out my scroll and followed her instructions. We'd seen less and less bodies as we progressed forward. Everything was quiet. The train tracks kept going in one direction but Summer was sure that one of these tunnels led to the exit. She was normally right.

That left three nearly identical tunnels. I'd almost given up differentiating them when I'd found it: dust crystals in the walls. "Summer! What do you think?"

"I think we have a winner." She smiled, the first one in hours and I immediately felt relief that we would be okay. That relief disappeared quickly.

The further along we walked, the more dust crystals there were. "To confine the Grim, they would need dust. To have a dust mine between the train and the facilities would've been something akin to brilliance.

We'd been right. Within minutes we'd reached a tall ramp that led to a steel door. It led to another series of hallways, but these had been from a building. Some of the walls were torn down; a few of them missing plaster or metal. Broken and shattered windows showed the ruins outside. Finally, we were free.

The sky was almost glowing. The waxing and waning moons were bright against the stars. There were cries of Grim in the distance but the familiar booms of gunpowder had long since dispersed. The other huntsman and huntresses were all likely asleep or resting up in various camps around the city.

"Use your scroll and call the others. The power on mine is pretty much completely used up."

I did as I was told, noting the time as I made my call. 4:27am. We'd been in those tunnels for nearly 9 hours. Raven picked up.

"I see you made it back out." She answered, sardonically.

"Yes, where are you?"

"I'm with Tai at the southwest edge of the city." I mouthed their location to Summer and she turned in their direction, eyeing the path wearily. We would need to walk almost the entire way back to where we'd fallen.

"Tell her we'll meet them on the train in the morning." She whispered.

I reiterated the plan to my sister, and she hung up without another word.

"So what should we do now?"

"Set up camp" She answered, a bundle of rags in her arms. Where she had the time to gather such a thing was questionable. She walked back into the building quickly. There was debris everywhere, but it would provide enough shelter for a few hours of rest.

She set the bundle in a messy pile on the floor before I set it alight. The fire was warm, a stark contrast to the train tunnels and the air outside. Summer pulled her hood up, setting her head on a piece of fallen concrete. The fire danced in her eyes.

I did the same, resting my head on my arm. It wouldn't be comfortable, but it'd be safe and warm.

"Summer?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk?"

"We just spent 9 hours talking in a tunnel. What more is there to talk about?"

I was silent for a minute. Maybe she was right. Maybe there wasn't anything else to talk about, but I was still running on adrenaline. My body was tired but my mind was wide awake, thinking about the past, the future, all of it with her. I didn't want to lose her.

"What are you going to do after graduation?" I asked.

She smiled, an unexpected question then, and one she was willing to answer. "Ozpin's already given me my mission plan. He's going to get me an apartment in Vale, so I can come home in between missions, but most of my time will be spent working."

"Where are you going?"

"Why do you want to know?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'll miss you."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop saying things you think are charming without meaning any of it."

I smiled, ignoring the steel beneath her words. "Are you saying I'm not charming?"

"Shut up." She turned around so I couldn't look at her face anymore. The back of her hood was almostgood. "I hate you sometimes."

That wiped the smile off my face. "When?"

"When you ignore me. After that night in the office you didn't talk to me for 2 weeks. After that kiss on the train you acted like I wasn't even there for a month. It's always like that. One minute you treat me like you need me and the next you act like you don't care if I disappear and I hate you for it."

I sighed. This was the meat of it all. Everything that had happened tonight and maybe even these past three years, led up to this moment. "I'm not trying to hurt you. I just don't want to make you any promises I can't keep."

"I never asked you to make me any promises Qrow! I never asked you to be with me. I didn't start any of that! You kissed me on that train! You slept with me in that office! You…" She didn't finish the sentence but I know what she was thinking about.

That night in the office in our second year had been platonic. We'd been mostly naked but we didn't do anything we couldn't come back from. Tai's birthday party had been different. I'd been drunk. We'd all been drunk. I couldn't look at her for months after that.

"I'm sorry… " I wanted to say I didn't regret it but I did, and I wouldn't keep lying to her. If I could turn back time, I would've stopped it from happening but I'm sure that's not what she wanted to hear.

"I don't care if you're sorry! All I ever wanted was to be friends. I liked watching you feed your birds. I liked when we played games together, and made jokes. I liked when I could sit next to you and not say a word. I liked when we could talk about anything or nothing. I didn't need anything else!"

I could hear her breathing deeply between each sentence. She was straining to stop her voice from wavering with her tears and I desperately wanted to hold her. It took everything I had to stop. "Summer…Do you still love me?"

She was silent. I was sure there were tears running down her face, but I couldn't hear it in her voice. I couldn't force her. I wouldn't. After what felt like hours, she gave me an answer. Her head nodded once, yes.

"But you don't want to be with me?"

A shake.

"Why?"

Silence.

"Summer?"

"Because you don't love me. You don't want to be with me, and I can't force you to love me. I'm not even going to try."

"How do you know?"

She curled up deeper into her hood, turning herself into a ball. "Can you imagine a future with me? Can you imagine the two of us being together? Getting married? Having kids?"

I didn't answer her, and that was the only answer the two of us needed. I couldn't imagine a future with her or anyone for that matter. Not even Raven. I could imagine being around them, sure, but to be tied down to one person seemed impossible. I couldn't make that promise.

The night passed in silence after that. There was nothing more to say. When I woke up the next morning, she was gone.


	7. Soaring into the Future

**A/N: There is optimistically speaking, one or two more chapters to this story. But I've kind of lost all motivation for writing it. Mostly for the lackluster attention it's received. I've also deleted my other story for the same reason. But if I don't update anymore, you can consider this the end.**

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For months afterward she didn't speak to me. The feeling was different. This time, she was serious. Up until graduation the two of us barely saw each other, but not for lack of trying. I looked for her everywhere I went, but her semblance made it easy for me to lose her. She didn't come back to the room at night. I checked her secret hideout often, but she wasn't there either. It was starting to become questionable that she slept at all.

Our mission to Mt. Glenn was the last, and when we returned, she'd become a different person. The school year was coming to a close and that meant that graduating seniors could do what they wanted. Summer took her chance and disappeared without a trace. There was beginning to be rumors that a vengeful ghost was haunting the school. It was simple enough to deduce what was really happening. Tai would try to talk to her on my behalf but it was pointless. Whenever I came close, she'd disappear.

Finally, the day arrived, a day where she couldn't avoid me, where she had to stand next to me, or at least somewhere close. We graduated as a team, those were the rules of Beacon. She stood to the right, in full view for the first time in months.

We were each handed a new, painted emblem, a symbol that we were now official huntsman and huntresses. Ozpin watched me with a small smile. "You should hurry Mr. Branwen, the important things tend to disappear when you least want them to."

His words startled me for a minute, distracting, but I knew what he meant. He wanted me to keep a close eye on my team, particularly Raven and Summer. I would disappoint him. Our team fell apart. Not right away but it was close enough.

Tai and Raven got married almost immediately afterward. They moved into Tai's childhood home in Patch. Summer stayed in Vale, renting an apartment above a dust shop. We were all going our separate ways: Different missions, different worlds. I took up a job at Signal to be as close to everyone as possible. Yang was born soon afterwards. Too soon. Tai had probably knocked up my sister while we were still in school. It was the only explanation. I would've beat him up if I thought Raven wanted me to, but it looked like everything was normal for the first year after Yang was born.

Summer cut off all contact, disappearing into the field. She'd left Raven her keys but it was me who went up there to dust the place off and check on things. I'd ask Ozpin where he sent her, but it was supposed to be a secret. He wouldn't tell me a thing.

One night, nearly ten months after graduation, Summer burst into her apartment, collapsing in a heap on the floor. Her clothes had been ripped almost to shreds, revealing bits of skin underneath. She was covered in bruises and cuts. Her blood was flowing onto the floorboards.

I rushed to her, dropping the mug I was holding. It fell into her sink with a clang. "Summer! Summer!" I grabbed her around the shoulders, lifting her into my lap, but no amount of shaking seemed to wake her. Her aura levels were down, probably broken. Who knew how long it would take for it to activate again to heal her wounds. There was no time.

I activated my own aura, a dull purple calling to her pure white. It sparked and died. Not enough then, but I saw that the bleeding had stopped. It was working. Some of the cuts looked like they were in the process of healing. On a normal civilian, a lot of these wounds would've been fatal, but she was a huntress. A very special one at that, if only she would open her eyes.

"Summer, wake up… Wake up!" I kept my aura going, checking her status on my scroll. My aura had dropped to half, but hers hadn't risen at all. Whatever had happened to her had been serious. With every minute that passed by, my aura level dropped. Sooner or later, all of her wounds would be healed. They had to.

"Qrow…What are you doing here?" Her whisper nearly gave me a heart attack. I jumped, nearly flinging my scroll into the floor. Her grey eyes were open a smidge, watching me with caution.

"I've been living here since you haven't. You pay rent, I might as well use it. I didn't want to jump in on Raven and Tai's little love nest. Raven just had a kid. They named her Yang." I was rambling. The relief at seeing her open her eyes was enough to make me of all people ramble. I almost wanted to cry. "I thought you were dead, Summer. What happened to you?"

She didn't answer the question, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm fine Qrow, thanks for helping me." She moved to get up, but she tottered on her feet, falling back into my arms. It would've been funny if it wasn't so worrying.

"You're not fine! You come in here half-dead, acting like you're okay! I'm going to help you, whether you want me to or not."I lifted her into my arms bridal-style and carried her to the bathroom, turning on the light. She looked better. Most of her injuries were really gruesome but the most wear was in her eyes.

"You're naked." She'd announced sleepily. I did laugh this time. Mostly out of the absurdity of the situation. Strictly speaking, I wasn't naked. I had underwear on, but I had been about to go to sleep when she barged in.

"You're not much better. The clothes you're wearing right now aren't hiding much. I'm surprised you made it back here at all." I dropped her in the tub and walked over to her closet. She did have clothes here, but I wasn't sure what she slept in. My clothes were probably better. I handed her a large button up from the closet. The kind of thing I wore to work.

I closed the door on her after turning the shower on. There was movement. A good sign. If she had enough energy for a shower then everything would be okay. I was already tired, but using nearly all my aura at once was enough to knock me out. I leaned against the door and closed my eyes. She was too much.

All of a sudden, the world tilted backward and I was staring into something grey framed against white. It took me a minute to realize I was staring up her legs into places I shouldn't have been looking. I stood up, backing away quickly. "Sorry." Normally, she would've hit me by now for the transgression.

Her hair was damp, and my shirt was big enough to nearly reach her knees. My sleeves hung at her fingertips. The shirt had been a good choice.

"Carry me." She'd reached out her arms, waiting to wrap them around my neck. She looked much younger than she was, almost like a child. That thought was more disturbing than it should've been. I obliged to her request, carrying her back to my bed. Technically hers, but I'd slept in it enough to think of it as mine. It was small but soft. We squeezed in close, her head in the cradle of my arm.

Her breaths were even, quiet, I could almost believe she was sleeping. "Summer, what have you been doing these past ten months? Where did you go?"

She tilted her head up to look at me, her hair splayed over my arm. It had gotten longer since I'd seen her. Now, it ruffled around her face and down to her chest. I was tempted to kiss her. Maybe that was the point. If I kissed her, she wouldn't need to answer me. She was testing my self-restraint.

"What do you know about Fairy Tales, Qrow?"

I know a couple of them. The story of the Creation, the Shallow Sea,….

"What if I told you, they weren't just stories. That many of them came from somewhere significant. What if I told you the brothers for the story of Creation were still alive?"

Whatever romantic mood I had was thrown out the window. "I'd say you were crazy and that whatever happened to make you stupid."

"The two brothers were the greatest wizards of all time. They learned the secret of immortality. They learned about reincarnation. As their bodily flesh withers and dies, their spirits jumps to the next host. They force themselves into their minds and cohabit it with original soul. They find these young boys everywhere. They're all very similar. They're almost always orphans: greedy, hungry for power or opportunity and the great wizard gives it to them."

It was madness. Magic didn't exist. Science, semblance, maybe. But how could a person steal bodies? And even if they could, where was this story going? "What was your mission?"

"To find the older of the two brothers, Cain."

"Creation…Then what about Destruction? Why not find him?"

"We already know him Qrow, can you not imagine who it might be?"

It only took me a second but even a second was too long. I should've known the moment she mentioned them. "Ozpin."

"Yes. I work for Ozpin, and now that I've told you, you will too."

That surprised me but I wasn't nearly as afraid as I should've been. "Why? How will he know?"

"One of the reasons I came back today wasn't just to heal my wounds. I was given a new mission, and I was told to regroup. While I rested he wanted me to choose someone from the team to join the cause, and I choose you."

"What is the cause? What is Ozpin trying to do?" Somewhere along our conversation I had started gripping her arm. It would bruise later but she never told me she was in pain or that I needed to stop. This really wasn't bed talk.

"Evil is patient, Qrow. She's waited thousands of years, trying to gather the secrets of the world hell bent on watching it burn. Ozpin can't stop her, but his brother might be able to. The last anyone's heard of him, he gave the four maidens from the story of the Seasons their powers. That was over three thousand years ago. My mission is to find him and bring him to Ozpin."

"I'll talk to Ozpin tomorrow. I'll join the cause."

"I never doubted you would." She answered, staring at me. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her to my chest. She paused, momentarily surprised before returning the hug. Her body was small. With me lying on top, it was completely possible I may have crushed her, but she was strong too. There was a bigger chance I might suffocate her. I told her as much.

"It's fine. I kind of like the feeling." She smiled into my chest.

"What kind of preference is that? Are you a masochist?" I grinned. After all that dark and depressing talk from earlier, we needed something to lighten the mood.

"Maybe…I'm here with you, aren't I?" She'd been trying to sound casual, but every word was tinged with sadness.

"You really shouldn't be with me."

She pulled herself up to kiss me, her hands entangled in my hair. "I know."

I pulled myself off, my body screaming at me to do the wrong thing and keep kissing her. "You're too good for me. This is a mistake."

She pulled herself in for another kiss, deep and intoxicating. "I know."

Her lips traced my collarbone, her lithe fingers drawing circles against my ribs. I pushed myself against her thighs as her legs wrapped around my waist. My mind flashed to that small piece of grey fabric I had seen earlier. "We shouldn't do this, Summer. We shouldn't do this again. Neither of us will be happy."

She undid the first three buttons of her shirt, and I tore off the rest. As the last bits of my self-control melted away, I could only hear her faintly whisper. "I know."

* * *

The next morning, I woke up in her bed alone. Summer was walking around her kitchen preparing a light breakfast. The buttons of my shirt were still undone.

Now that there was sufficient light, I could see her properly. Her wounds had been replaced by ugly scars. Soon, even that would disappear. She was healing well. There was blood from our activities last night, but there wasn't enough to worry over.

"Summer," I wrapped my arms around her waist, "We should talk."

"What's there to talk about?" She didn't turn to look at me, her eyes were focused on the plates in front of her. She had a prime view of the city from her apartment. It had been the site of a robbery recently, leave rent extremely affordable for such a nice place. "About us."

"There's nothing talk about." She finally turned to look at me. Her silver eyes were piercing, shinier than I had ever seen them. A small, serene smile on her face. "I'll be leaving again in a few hours and things will go back to how they were."

That hurt. She was going to leave again, acting like nothing happened between us."What do you mean? You're going to ignore my calls and pretend I don't exist again? Why do we keep doing this to each other? Why can't we sit down and talk about this peacefully?"

"Because there's no future for us Qrow. Do you want to get married? Have kids? No. You don't. What do you want to say? That I'm wrong? I know you. We've been together for four years. We've had…" She drew a thin circle in the air with her finger. "Something comfortable and that's all you've ever wanted from me. You don't know if you like me. You didn't know in that cave and you don't know now."

I wanted to say something. I wanted to deny everything she was saying but I couldn't. Did I want kids? Did I want her? Or did I just want to have everything she was offering? I couldn't answer her. After all this time, I still didn't know. Maybe she knew because she kept going.

"You don't like me Qrow. You never have. Not the way I like you. I've said everything I've ever wanted to say to you in Mt. Glenn. This is as far as we'll ever go. I sleep with you because I love you and you'll do it because I'm easy. "

"That's not-" Was it like that? I was afraid; I didn't want to lie to her, anyone but her, but I didn't want to lose her. If I let her disappear on me again, she might never come back. "I want you, Summer."

"You want me?" She tasted the words on her lips and her face soured. "And what will I get out of staying here with you? Who am I to you?" She laughed scornfully and disappeared without waiting for an answer.

"Summer! Summer!" I reached out to where she was standing but I only found air. The room wasn't empty. She was here somewhere. "Get back here! We're not done! Summer!"

" _Yes,_ we are, Qrow." The window had been thrown open. I grabbed for her. My fist closed around the tale end of her shirt. It ripped off falling into my hands. She was gone.

The next time I saw her, she was 6 months pregnant.


	8. The End, and the Beginning

**A/N: There are still new people following this for whatever reason. It's given me just the tiniest glimmer of hope. I had all this written out a long time ago, but it was lost in a pile of my school notes. If I ever find the epilogue, I'll type that up too. But, yeah. Please enjoy.**

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After Summer left, I'd gone to Ozpin as she requested and he'd told me everything. A lot of it was hard to believe. The stories and legends we were told as children were all true, or most of them he said. A few lies were mixed in to confuse the ones who sought their power for evil.

The four maidens were four women with enormous power that coincided with the season they represented. As one of them died, another girl would inherit the powers to replace her. From handmaiden to sister, from friend to foe, her semblance had moved from one girl to another in an endless cycle of death and power.

Summer had been sent in search of the Winter maiden. (Ironic, I know) The last one had died mysteriously right before our mission at Mt. Glenn and Ozpin was dead set on finding her before our enemies did. He offered to tell me her location so I could join her. But I refused. Seeing me now wouldn't make her happy.

Ozpin sent me to the four farthest corners of Remnant to do everything from checking new rumors to following cold trails. The missions suited me well, but sometimes I missed home. A few months after one of these expeditions, I returned to Vale with a new job. Ozpin had set me up with a teaching position at Signal.

I never liked kids, but the job changed me. These were brats, but they were good brats. I taught them weapon mechanics and they listened. The things they built sometimes impressed even me. It was a good break from the horrors I saw in the field.

The next time anyone had seen her, was 6 months later. She'd showed up at Tai and Raven's house in the middle of the night with a bulging belly and half a dozen wounds on her body. Raven called me, and all it took was one word to get me to go all the way to Patch. Summer.

The moment I stepped foot on their yard, Tai had tried to kill me. He punched me in the face, sending me flying backward. His Guilded Emperor was fitted perfectly onto his fists.

He grabbed my shirt pulling my face to his. "Summer and Raven might forgive you but I don't. How could you do that? You just let your pregnant wife throw herself into danger without trying to stop her? What the hell is wrong with you?"

I pushed him off me. He lunged for me again and I punched him in the stomach. "Get a damn grip. She's not my wife."

He kicked me twice from the ground, tripping me. "What do you mean she's not your wife? Do you think we're blind?! We know you guys were together before graduation. You're living in her apartment!"

I flipped, landing on my feet. I turned around, throwing myself down on him with my elbow. This fight was ridiculous but it felt good. All this time, all my frustration was coming out in this fight. It felt good to hurt someone. It felt good to be hit. "We're not together. I haven't even seen her in six months."

He blocked and I landed on cold metal, the shock of it shooting up my arm. He wasn't listening to me but that wasn't so important. The fact that we could have a conversation while fighting should've been amazing but it was easy not being allowed time to think. I just moved on instinct"So what!? Are you just going to let her run off again?! Even if you're not together, she's still our friend! You should never have let her leave! What are you going to do about this?!"

He'd grabbed onto my arm, throwing me into a nearby tree. I pulled myself up, tasting iron. Blood. I hadn't activated my semblance, but that was only fair. He hadn't either. This was a fight of men. I wiped the blood from my mouth and tackled him to the ground pinning him with my knee.

The simple thing to say was that I'd take responsibility but that would've been a lie and this was not the time to be making promises I couldn't keep. It also didn't help that the fact that Summer was pregnant hadn't really kick in. The moment I'd heard the words, I'd already repressed the thought. "I don't know."

"You don't know?! How can you not know?!" His face was getting darker with every second. Summer was our leader but she was the smallest, the youngest. For Tai, she was like the little sister he never had. He looked like he wanted to kill me.

I kept his arms pinned with my knees but he struggled, trying to hit me without the advantage of momentum. The position would'v e been funny if the situation was't so tense.

As I was thinking this, he finally got serious, letting off a few shots with the Guilded Emperor. The shots threw me backward. The fact that he used dust was what got me to realize he was serious. Up until then it had been a mostly fair fight, but now it was clearly in his advantage, and he was going to use it to kill me.

He might've succeeded too, if Summer hadn't stopped him. She'd appeared from nowhere, her hands wrapped around his fists.

Looking at her face filled me with some weird unidentifiable emotion. It could've relief that she was alive, joy at her being so close, anger at her for leaving me, or even some combination of all that.

"You can't kill him, Tai. He's not the father."

"WHAT?!" The three of us yelled in unison. Raven had joined us, little Yang gibbering in her arms.

I watched the scene with a surreal disbelief. Not the father. Summer was pregnant and I wasn't the father? Then who was? Who else had she been with?

"Go back in with Raven Tai, I want to talk to him alone." She'd said it gently, but there was stel in her voice.

He glared at me before walking away, one arm drapped over Raven's shoulder. Raven mouthed the words 'she's lying' over her shoulder before turning around.

Once the other two were out of earshot, Summer turned to me, a sad smile on her face. "Let's go for a walk."

She strode off without waiting for an answer. Her stomach wasn't large like most pregnancies I'd seen but there was a definite bump that looked out of place. Her clothes were once again in shambles. Bits of it even seemed ripped and burned. She looked worser than the last time I'd seen her but at least she was capable of walking on her own.

Once we'd walked far enough away, she turned to look at me. Her silver eyes, wary and tired. "How are you?"

"Why didn't you answer my calls?" I asked, ignoring her question. I didn't want small talk. She had every opportunity to reach me, but she never tried. In all the time she'd been gone, it was nerve wracking waiting for her. I had had to go to Ozpin for details.

"We're jumping straight away to the good stuff then?" She sighed, sitting down in a hollow between two thick tree branches. Her legs hung off the ground. "Who answers the calls of the man they're avoiding? Besides, I was with someone else."

"The guy who did that?" I pointed to her stomach. I didn't want to call him her boyfriend or husband or whatever he was. I also didn't want to say she was pregnant. It was too much in one sentence.

She nodded, and we were silent. The idea that another man had his arms around her, had touched her the way I did, made me see red. For a minute I thought I would burn the whole forest to the ground.

What was this feeling? Betrayal? I felt like she betrayed me. Why? The answer should've been obvious. Because I thought she would always love me. I thought she would always come back to me, and I was wrong. I hadn't even known I'd thought those things until that one moment where I'd realized I had been wrong. Whatever feelings I had now, I deserved it. My hands shook. Something. I needed something to hold on to.

"Whose the father?"

"A huntsman I met in the field. Vaccuo."

"Vaccuo, huh..." I hadn't known she was there. The desert was full of strong huntsmen, men who could protect her. Men who weren't me. "Are you going to go back there soon?"

She rubbed her belly absent-mindedly. It really wasn't all that noticeable. It could've easily been fat or a fanny pack she'd stuffed underneath her vest. It was easy to pretend.

"Maybe. Maybe he'll come here and you guys can meet him.

"No."

"No?" She titled her head quizically. Her hair fell into her face. It was longer than I'd ever seen it, the red now more noticeable than ever.

"I don't want to meet him. I'll probably want to strangle him." Raven's words reappeared in my mind. It's true. She could've been lying. It was even likely, but the idea that she wasn't, hurt. It stabbed at me like a knife.

"Oh really?" She started to laugh, the old mischief was in her eyes. It had felt like lifetimes since I'd seen it. "Oh yeah? The jealousy eating away you?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I just don't have any interest in men."

She laughed again, her arms waped around herself hidng her belly from view. "Don't be silly. I've seen the stuff you and Tai do in the showers."

I'd been leaning against the tree, my back to her. But at the absurd implication I turned around to trap her, my arms blocking her escape? "Oh yeah? What have you seen?"

She grinned. Either she hadn't seen our position or she didn't care. I found myself hoping for the latter despite knowing it was hopeless.

"Naked wet boys of course." She burst into an insane fit of laughter. The boys on our floor rarely locked the door when showering. It wouldn't have been weird if one of the girls had peeked in at some point. We'd never heard anything about it, but I wouldn't put it passd her.

Still, hearing her laugh was nice. This simple moment without the pressure from her one-sided feelings was enough to make me want to cry tears of joy. But I knew. I knew this quiet calm was a fake reprieve. It was a temporary illusion that would shatter the moment we walked out of this forest. There was now a person between us. This man in Vaccuo, and soon, there would be a second: the baby in her belly.

"Are you lying?"

Her smile was still inquisitive but her eyes had grown weary. The illusion had ended early. "Of course not. Come here, put your hand on my stomach. Can you feel it? Her aura is already pulsing. It's going to be a girl."

I sighed. I wanted to move my hand away from her as soon as I could, but I didn't. There was a new aura. It was similar but different from the woman I knew. It was a weird feeling. "What are you going to name her?"

"Ruby. Ruby Rose."

"Ruby Rose, huh? Nice name."

"Yes. Her dad thinks so too."

The mention of him made the world to flash red again. Yes. I hated him; for no other reason than because he'd touched my girl. The thought left me cold. I'd thought of her as something that belonged to me, but she didn't. She was a free person. Free to do and be with whoever she wanted, even if that person wasn't me.

"Do you love him?"

Her eyes grew wide with surprise, then she closed them, smiling. When she opened them again, her eyes were sad once more. "Yes. Very much."

"More than me?" It was a stupid question, but I had to know.

Her smile grew a little more, but her eyes were sadder than ever. "No. Never more than you."

I moved in to kiss her but she'd ducked under my arm. "Let's go back Qrow. I want to play with Yang. Tai's been teaching her to punch things."

* * *

She didn't go back to Vaccuo or wherever she'd been. After she came back, she'd moved in to a new flat that Ozpin prepared. He would the Godfather to her child when she grew old enough to know him. She would go to Beacon someday.

Ruby was born three months later amidst a lot of screaming doctors at Vale Medical Center. She arrived in a bloody mess with almost no distinguishing features. Raven brought Yang to see her at the maternity ward and the young toddler took to her immediately. She'd have a playmate soon enough.

Or so I thought. Not long after Ruby was born, Raven disappeared. She'd accepted some mysterious mission and left without telling anyone. She wouldn't answer any our calls or any of Tai's letters. Not even I knew where she was, not that Tai believed me.

He was convinced I knew where Raven was hiding, and nothing I said could convince him otherwise. He didn't believe that Ruby wasn't my child either, but there was nothing I could do about that. I didn't really believe it myself. With every passing day, my suspicions grew stronger.

Ruby didn't look like anyone at first, but 5 months after she was born, I barged into Summer's flat. I couldn't stand it anymore. "You were lying."

The more I looked at the two of them, the more convinced I was that we were right. She looked just like Summer, except way more compact, almost like someone had taken all 5 feet of her and shrunken her into a doll. There was only one difference between the two.

I'd always loved Summer's hair. In the bright sun, it almost looked like she was on fire. There was more shades of red in her hair than words to name them. Ruby's hair was black, dark as a crow's feathers.

Summer shrugged, not even the slightest bit of alarm on her face. "Yes."

I just stared at her. How could she be so nonchalant? So cold? How could she continue on with her day as if this didn't affect her? "Why did you lie?"

"I wanted to see how you'd react." Her answer was so simple. So unlike her. It was the kind of thing she'd do in our old games but we weren't kids anymore. We were adults. We payed bills and cooked our own food. We had a kid for fuck's sake.

"So what? Now that you've had your fun, what are we gong to do?" I was furious. How could she do that to me. Ruby was my kid and she was willing to have never told me if Ruby hadn't made it so obvious. Didn't I mean anything to her?

"Nothing. This doesn't change anything. You're not her father."

I grabbed her by the shoulders, nearly shaking her. "Why do you keep lying to me?"

"I'm not. You're working for Ozpin, so am I. We know how this ends. The world comes first, Ruby comes second. If I die, I need someone to take care of her. That person isn't you."

"Then who?"

"Tai. We're getting married next month"

"What...?" I thought I misheard her. It wasn't possible. It didn't make any sense. "What are you talking about? How will that work? What about Yang? What about Raven?" My confusion had caused me to let her go. I could only look at Ruby with regret. How did we get here? How did it ever come to this?

"Raven's gone. She's not coming back. You know that as well as I do. She was never going to be able to live this small country life for long." Summer, smoothed back the hair on our daughter's head. My hair. "If I marry Tai, we'll have a neat little family. Ruby will have a dad. Yang will have a mom. They'll grow up as sisters. Yang's still young. She won't remember."

"Do you even know what you're saying? You don't love him." I was tempted to break something but I didn't want to scare Ruby. "Am I supposed to pretend you never liked me? That you don't care? That we didn't do..." I searched for the words and found none. All I could do was gesture to Ruby, what her existence meant.

Summer's expression was odd, almost cruel. It made her look like a different person. "Yes. That's what we've been doing for two years. Why stop now? It's what you wanted, isn't it? You've never told anyone we were together.

She stood up , standing toe to toe with me despite being a foot shorter. "Get out, Qrow. We're done."


	9. Epilogue

**A/N: This is the epilogue. There is nothing, absolutely nothing left. Stop following. Leave a review though. I love those. Sorry to the people who this story depressed. You should've known it wasn't going to end well, I mean. Summer's dead and Ruby is Tai's daughter for a reason. I try to make my stories as canonically as possible. GG WP. Come back next time for my next Rwby head cannon as they appear.**

* * *

The next few years passed by in a blur. Tai and Summer got married on the day Ruby turned one. There was a little ceremony in the backyard of their cabin. A few of our mutual friends went but I didn't. I'd visit every so often, a little more as the years went by. Ozpin sent me out in the field more often. Could probably tell I didn't want to be home.

Summer gave me the flat so I could have a place to come home to, which I did sometimes. Teaching at Signal helped a bit as more time went by. The kids reminded me of the girls. They were growing up fast. Ruby could talk almost perfectly by the time she was three. By then, Yang was making firewood by punching trees. They were good kids for the most part. Summer had been right. They were like sisters.

I'd become Uncle Qrow. The cool uncle they could tell all the weird secrets they couldn't tell their parents. I trained and made weapons with Ruby. I played video games with Yang. On occasion Summer even let me taste test their weekend baking tests. Those days were fun.

Tai hated me with a burning passion. He hated me for what happened with Summer. He hated me for letting Raven leave. He hated that she still kept in contact with me but not him. Nearly six years of friendship had been worn down to cold tolerance for the sake of the kids. It was like a bad marriage.

Summer was better. We'd talk sometimes when it was just the two of us and the kids. Some rare nights, I would stay over and she'd come to talk over a cup of tea or coffee. I drank a lot those nights. It became a habit to have a couple swigs every day after she married Tai. A couple swigs became a bottle and a bottle became more than water. Point is: I drank a lot. It drowned out the noise. When I was lucky, it made me forget.

We never talked about us or what-ifs. At the worst, she told me to drink less and that I was a bad influence on the girls. At our best, we'd make jokes and laugh about our time at Beacon.

"You shouldn't drink so much." Her hands were wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. A fluffy robe kept her warm. The recliner she sat in was her favorite: worn leather, ripped back. "It's bad for you, you know."

I was sprawled out on their couch; the girls were asleep upstairs. Yang was almost eleven now, and Ruby had just celebrated her 8th birthday. I bought her dust crystals. Tai wasn't happy about that, but the man was never happy these days. He found love notes in Yang's backpack. He'd been nagging her about it for months.

I kept my eyes closed in a poor imitation of sleep. "That's the point." I raised my flask to the air, spilling some onto my shirt. "To bad health". I took a large swig before sitting up to look at her. I tried not to most days, but the liquor had already worn down my resistance to such urges.

Summer looked almost exactly the same. Her hair was almost to her hip now, but she usually kept it in a messy bun tonight. She'd started wearing glasses and she'd gotten a few more laugh lines, but she otherwise, there was no difference from the day I'd met her. Even the baby fat had stayed attached to her cheekbones hadn't stayed. When Ruby got a little older, they could look like sisters.

She shook her head, her long hair falling out of her bun. "How am I supposed to trust you to take care of the family when you're like that?" She smiled, meeting my eyes for the first time in years. It woke me up a bit. At least enough to ask questions.

"What are you talking to about?"

"Ozpin's sending me out for the Winter Maiden". That sobered me up completely.

"Why? Why you?"

"Raven has her. They're in Atlas. I was asked to go. Besides, I want to see her. I want to go back to Solitas. I'm the best person to go. I know the terrain. I know the people."

"Why did Ozpin tell you and not me?" It hurt. I'd spent years working on finding the maidens and now they had a lead and excluded me completely. It was _my_ sister. It should've been _my_ mission. It should've been me. Summer was practically retired.

"I'm a fully-trained huntress, you know. I can go on this mission if I want to." It should've been snooty, but she'd been quiet and there was a smile on her face. She'd matured a bit. Less yelling. She didn't even yell at the kids. Ever. Random outbursts were more Tai's thing.

"You can't go!" My voice had risen above acceptable volumes and it was only getting louder with every word. "What if you get hurt? What if you die? What will I tell-"

She'd leapt from the chair, throwing her whole body over mine, to clasp her hand over my mouth. "Don't yell. You'll wake the kids."

I couldn't even if I wanted to. This was the closest she'd been to me in years. Even at holidays dinners when her hand brushed mine, her body would be around the table, her eyes on one of the girls. She'd sit as far away as possible when we went to the movies or to watch a show.

Her lips were inches above her hand. Her eyes smiled down mischievously at me. My entire face burned. I wanted nothing more than for us to stay like that as long as possible.

She sat up, pulling her hand from my face. I reflexively grabbed her arm, pulling her back on top of me. "Don't go," I whispered.

She smiled that same sad smile that haunted my dreams. It was what I saw when I slept here, when I slept at the apartment. I hadn't seen it since that day she told me she was pregnant.

I brought her face to mine, kissing her once. Softly. She didn't reciprocate, but she didn't push me away. "Please don't go."

"And what do I get if I stay?" Deja vu racked every bone in my body. It would've been nostalgic if I didn't feel so much regret. This would play out differently. It had to. I couldn't let it end the same way. I wouldn't let her leave. I couldn't. It would kill me if it happened again.

I'd found the answer to her question years ago. That scene had played through my head so many times that I could practically recite every detail. "You're the mother of my kid. The woman I dream about every night, and think about every day. Don't go, Summer. I'll give you whatever you want. I'll be whatever you want. Just don't leave." My answer was quiet, but it was whispered into her hair. She should've heard it loud and clear.

I thought time had stopped. She didn't move. After an eternity, she smiled again, but it was the same one I saw in my dreams. So sad. She moved so she could sit next to me on the couch, her head on my shoulder. I relaxed. She wasn't leaving. "Did you know Tai never got over Raven. He still misses her even if he won't admit it. He won't say her name and he's burned all his pictures of us together, but when we go to sleep at night, the name he whispers in his sleep is hers. We sleep in the same bed, but we've never done…that"

The shock from what I was hearing caused all my apprehension to melt away. This had to be a lie. They'd been married 7 years and not once, not that? It almost made a man like me want to cry. For years I'd get jealous for no reason, just looking at him. For nothing. Had he done it on purpose? Had he hoped that I would believe Summer was truly over me? Had he let me believe all that just to spite me? There was no doubt in my mind that he would do just that. The bastard.

"Why…Why are you telling me?"

She laughed, like a twinkle of moonlight. She still giggled like a kid, but now it was more restrained. Maybe because it was late. Maybe because we'd gotten old. "I see the way you look at him. I figured you'd want to know so you don't try to kill him with your eyes."

I laughed too. She always was the one who knew me best. "I love you."

"I love you too."

* * *

Ruby woke me up, jolting me out of darkness. She'd been biting my face and it only took me a second to realize why. She had been using both of her tiny hands to hold my flask. I would quit for them. Things would be different.

"Hey kiddo, where's your mom?" I ruffled her hair. She really did look exactly like her mother, but she had my hair. Sort of. Bits of it were turning red as she grew older.

"Mommy left this morning to fight the monsters." Ruby took a sip from my flask and immediately made a face before running off. "DADDY!"

Summer never came home.


End file.
